In general, a slide fastener is manufactured by mounting synthetic resin or metallic fastener elements to opposite marginal part of woven or knitted fastener tapes to form fastener stringers, and slidably mounting a slider to element rows of the left and right fastener stringers where one set has two obtained stringers. In such slide fastener, as the slider is slid along the element rows, the opposite fastener elements are coupled and released.
In general, various designs have been applied to clothes or bags until now, and new designs are required to increase values of products. In recent years, designs are required even for slide fasteners used in the clothes or bags, and fastener tapes or fastener elements to which various patterns or colors are applied are commercially available.
As methods for applying patterns or colors to fastener tapes or fastener elements, for example, a method of attaching a thermal transfer sheet having a predetermined pattern to a fastener stringer and then heat-treating the fastener stringer to transfer the pattern onto the fastener stringer, a method of printing a predetermined pattern on a fastener stringer through an inkjet method and then heat-treating the fastener stringer to color the fastener stringer, and the like are well known.
For example, a method and an apparatus for dyeing a slide fastener through an inkjet method are disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-24004 (Patent Document 1).
In the method of dyeing a slide fastener disclosed in Patent Document 1, first, a pattern is formed on a surface of the slide fastener by ejecting ink droplets from an inkjet nozzle onto a surface of the slide fastener including synthetic resin fastener elements. After that, a dye attached to the slide fastener is dyed onto a fastener tape and fastener elements by heat-treating the slide fastener to which the pattern is given.
Meanwhile, U.S. Pat. No. 2,041,558 (Patent Document 2) discloses a slide fastener where a large recess (or groove) is formed on a surface of a fastener element. The recess is basically a design of the fastener element and is formed on the surface of the element decoratively. According to Patent Document 2, after the fastener element is coated or plated, a filling material is filled in the recess of the fastener element, making it possible to show a color difference on the surface of the fastener element.